In The Media

Think your child's teacher is terrific? Or terrible? Just feel fortunate the kid has a teacher at all.

It's getting harder and harder to attract college students to teaching. That's frustrating for public schools, because there are plenty of job vacancies and a growing shortage of qualified applicants.

The problem is a national one, but it's especially troublesome in California.

Districts are trying to hire because, for one, there's a drive to reduce class sizes. Then-Gov. Pete Wilson lowered them in the late 1990s. But Sacramento slashed funding during the recession, many teachers were

It’s been a big year for local news. No Top 10 list could cover everything that happened here in 2015, but several stories stand out as defining the yin-yang of triumphs and troubles that made for a roller-coaster 365 days west of the 405.

6. Mandatory Measles Vaccinations

Santa Monica schools had some of the lowest immunization rates in Southern California at the beginning of this year. After a measles outbreak shut down a child care center at SaMo High in February, newly elected state Sen.  Ben Allen (formerly on the school board) succeeded in passing legislation to end personal belief

State lawmakers — Adrin Nazarian, Ben Allen and Richard Bloom — visited a future Palms Expo Line station on Friday morning to urge the passage of two bills to greatly expand transit funding.

With the State’s roads, bridges and freeways slowly falling into disrepair due to lack of infrastructure funding, Governor Brown has called for a Special Session for legislators to discuss ways to address the problem. So far, public transit, which has its own infrastructure funding crisis, has not been part of the discussions.

Transit advocates statewide are now entering the fray, arguing that public

State legislators joined Los Angeles transportation officials Friday to push for a $900 million public transit funding plan that includes raising the gas tax to boost transportation infrastructure repair dollars.

A special session on transportation called by Gov. Jerry Brown to discuss increasing funding for repairs of streets, bridges and freeways should also include talk of funding public transportation, state Sen. Ben Allen, Assemblymen Adrin Nazarian and Richard Bloom and Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials said during a news conference.

The legislators are

Normandie Avenue Elementary Principal Gustavo Ortiz worries that he can't provide arts classes for most of the 900 students at his South Los Angeles school.

Not a single art or music class was offered until this year at Curtiss Middle School in Carson.

At Carlos Santana Arts Academy in North Hills, a campus abuzz with visual and performing arts, the principal has gone outside the school district for help. A former professional dancer, she has tapped industry connections and persuaded friends to teach ballroom dancing and other classes without pay until she could reimburse them.

Budget cuts

By Santa Monica Forward

Last week, we celebrated the leadership shown by the Supreme Court when it affirmed equality under the law for many who previously had been denied it. At the same time, a local leader was making headlines by taking a stand on another important issue.

State Sen. Ben Allen, a Santa Monica native who now represents our city in Sacramento, saw the bill he introduced — SB 277 — signed into law by the governor last week. The bill, by removing the personal-belief exemption for vaccinations, will go far to safeguard the future of public health in California.

For the entire

Senator Allen on The Doug McIntyre Show on KABC radio in Los Angeles. The topic was Senator Allen’s proposed legislation to close the vaccine loophole.